"What's a landline?"

[Food Lady]

That's what this girl, around 8 or 9, asked after I mentioned to her dad that I heard phone companies are planning to phase them out. The dad and all the customers behind them were Me, too.

[Soulstealer]

I bet showing her a rotary phone would be fun.

[XCashier]

Makes you wonder what kids would think of typewriters and record players...

[protege]

...or cassettes and 8-tracks

[dalesys]

I bet showing her a rotary phone would be fun.

Better yet, one with a crank to ring Central.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

When I tell people I'm old enough that I learned how to type in a typewriter I get the strangest looks! It was an IMB Selectric with the pop-out font ball, and I learned how to type up business letters, memos, and a bunch of other assorted things that have since fallen out of use in this age of computers and Word templates.

I learned on those as well during 1st year Typing. Second year we had brother electronic typewriters.

I also had two typewriters at home that I used . . . one was a portable Smith Corona electric (which gave me a royal fit when I'd try to use it) and a vintage Consul manual. Ask me which one got more use?

I know for ages all the kids wanted one of those yellow and black Sony Walkman cassette players - it was to us what iPods are to the kids these days. Well, if your a kid who has bought into the iPod craze, that is.

I had one of those too . . . wasn't a Sony brand (they were too expensive for my mom to afford back then) but I had a GE model w/FM radio. And I've lost count of how many boom boxes (or Ghetto Blasters as they were also popularly known as) we had during that decade.

The next to last one we bought needed a trailer and a hitch - it was SO big. It not only had the double cassette deck built in, but also inputs for a CD player and turntable. Had AM/FM/TV/Shortwave built in and a siren and strobe light that if it were set, you didn't dare walk in front of it. It would go off and it could be heard 5 miles away in all directions!!!

And I found a pic online of one just like it (sadly, I don't have mine anymore - it left my building when all my vintage Commodore computer equipment walked out some years back.)

[Food Lady]

Better yet, one with a crank to ring Central.

My stepfather has one.

[catcul]

My grandmother still has an old calculator that doesn't use any electricity. My mother still has my dad's slide rule.

[AdamAnt316]

As a collector of vintage telephones, I know pretty damn well what they are. I have several dozen of them at this point, mostly with rotary dials, though some are touchtone (several of which are early examples, with only ten buttons on the dial pad, missing the star and pound keys, which makes it difficult to use some phone menus). We have Verizon FiOS's basic phone service which, fortunately, is mostly friendly to rotary phones (only issue is that it's extremely picky with regards to the rate of dial pulses; if the phone's rotary dial is too fast or too slow, it won't recognize the digits). I keep several of my old phones hooked up at all times, rotating between examples in the collection.

I bet showing her a rotary phone would be fun.

Ah yes, a favorite 'prank' among collectors of old phones. *kid pushes their finger through the holes in the dial* "Where are the buttons?"

Better yet, one with a crank to ring Central.

I don't have a full one yet, though I do have a ringer box with a crank magneto in it (referred to as a "subset") which would've been used with a candlestick phone (which I also have an example of).

Makes you wonder what kids would think of typewriters and record players...

...or cassettes and 8-tracks

Should I be embarrassed that I still have all of these? I'm considering setting up an obsolete technology museum someday, though I'm far from working out the logistics.
-Adam

[mhkohne]

As a collector of vintage telephones, I know pretty damn well what they are. I have several dozen of them at this point, mostly with rotary dials, though some are touchtone (several of which are early examples, with only ten buttons on the dial pad, missing the star and pound keys, which makes it difficult to use some phone menus). We have Verizon FiOS's basic phone service which, fortunately, is mostly friendly to rotary phones (only issue is that it's extremely picky with regards to the rate of dial pulses; if the phone's rotary dial is too fast or too slow, it won't recognize the digits). I keep several of my old phones hooked up at all times, rotating between examples in the collection.

Awesome! I just sort of assumed that the fios adapter wouldn't talk rotary. I'll have to getbmine back out. Thanks!

[AdamAnt316]

Awesome! I just sort of assumed that the fios adapter wouldn't talk rotary. I'll have to getbmine back out. Thanks!

The FiOS network interface (aka the ONT) has a built-in pulse-to-tone converter. Occasionally, while dialing, you'll hear a touch-tone after the pulses have gone through. The nice thing about that is, if you're dealing with a phone menu which asks you to dial 1 for English, you can dial 1 on the rotary dial, and it'll advance the phone menu. Remember, though, that said converter is sensitive to the pulse rate; if you start dialing a number and it doesn't break the dial tone, the dial is probably a bit sluggish. Good luck!
-Adam

[Sakka]

I bet showing her a rotary phone would be fun.

Many years ago, parents had only a rotary phone in the house. My brother had one of his friends over, who needed to call home to let his parents know where he was. Dad points out the phone on the kitchen wall and goes back to his book. Several minutes later, brother's friend asks dad how to use the phone.

[XCashier]

I'm considering setting up an obsolete technology museum someday, though I'm far from working out the logistics.

That would be pretty nifty, actually.

[Cecily]

I'm considering setting up an obsolete technology museum someday, though I'm far from working out the logistics.
-Adam

Don't forget to put a yellow HB pencil next to the audio casettes.

[MoonCat]

I still have a portable cassette player/radio. Still works.

I recall once being in the local thrift store with my brother and this kid standing nearby points to a record player and says, "Can you show me how this works?"

Talk about a sign of getting old...!